Course Description: Claudia Folts, founder and owner of Tutu.Com, and special guests invite you to a fun evening of charcuterie, networking, talks, and tips from our teachers and special guests.

Happening in the intimate and comfortable lounge at the Hilton Garden Inn - Ayresley, our beautiful, new location for 2026, order your favorite beverage from the bar, enjoy some yummy food, spend time getting to know each other, then settle in for an informal discussion of everything and anything tutu and dance costume related. 

Bring your questions and your experiences and lets help each other grow and get wiser to all things tutu! Whether you are thinking about starting your own business, or you’re already in business, this discussion will be of benefit to you.

Topics will include ethical business practices/behavior, design ethics, pricing your work, advertising, building a strong social media presence, developing a following, the importance of excellent customer service, how to easily make an unhappy client happy, ballet appropriateness in design and color selections, working in a costume shop, backstage wardrobe for touring companies, and much more. Bring your questions and experiences! $100, if registered for other classes, otherwise $150. 

This year, we will have several special guests joining us - Marissa McCullough, Dance Costume Shop Director at UNC School of the Arts, Jerri Reeves, tiara designer and owner of Dragon Gate Designs, Elizabeth Ekey of Tututheatre.com, Catherine Zehr, costume designer for Ballets with a Twist (our tiar teacher), Sophie Mercure, head of the lower school at Charlotte Ballet, and Chris Takashima, Creative Director at Much Ado Tutus. Chris also teaches our thermoplastics classes. Our panel will also include our Tutu.Com Shop Manager, Summer Collins and Creative Director, Claudia Folts. See their resumes as well as those of all our teachers, at this link: https://tutu.com/pages/tutuschools-faculty

Prerequisites: None

Time: 2-3hours, starting at 5:30pm, sometimes a bit longer, depending on discussions/questions. For those with other evening classes/plans you can leave whenever you need to.

Payments: Tutu.com Courses are available for those attending TutuSchool. Cost for this course INCLUDES the class, the teacher, and all fabrics and notions. Payments are non-refundable, however a TutuSchools credit, less 10%, will be granted for use within one year at any of our seminar locations when requested more than 30 days in advance of your seminar. If you must drop out within 30 days of the class date, no credit will be issued. Pay in monthly installments with ShopPay or PayPal Credit.